How to Have a Stress-Free Wedding Day

George: Sarah, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. To start with, what is Orchid Events? Sarah Balfour: Orchid Events is the spoke tailor made one to one wedding planning service. We will organize a wedding for bride and groom. Take the whole headache of organizing a wedding away from the bride and groom and taking it upon ourselves. And hope if we make it a stress free and really enjoyable planning process. George: So, why have you chosen to meet here today in this what a gorgeous hotel. Sarah Balfour: This is a beautiful hotel. This is—hotel. We’re currently sitting in a stunning restaurant which is the Paul restaurant as you can see beautiful post all around up here. It’s absolutely breathtaking. Very popular wedding venue and it’s somewhere I work a lot. As soon as the bride and groom walked in here they’ll immediately blown away by how peaceful is in here. George: So, I imagined you have to be rather organized. Sarah Balfour: You have to be very, very, very organized. How we work is once we’ve met the clients, we have what we call our orchid briefing form and this form we go through in detail with the clients on the highlights, the whole feel that the wedding that they’re after, where they want to get married, how many people they want to come, do they need accommodation for the guests coming, are there any guest from overseas coming, catering requirements, musical requirements, etcetera. Once we’ve done all of that we do what we call our venue proposal which is a lovely half point presentation but we hand pick some venues that we think we take all the boxes for the bride and groom. George: And so the couples that have a hectic lifestyle, how does Orchid make it all easier? Sarah Balfour: We have a really good online planning tool so that every bride and groom has their own username and password. So whereever they are in the world or whatever time it is they can log on with their own usernames and passwords and now they go straight into their own planner and it’s divided into budget which outlines all the different elements of the wedding from catering, florist, photographer etcetera with the mention of how much they spend and what they owe. Then there’s the guest list which outlines all the names of the guests, the addresses of all the guests, who’s coming, who’s not coming, any dietary requirements they may have etcetera. Then we have the calendar which highlights any appointments that are coming up with florist, photographers, etcetera so it’s all there on one side. George: Do you think that the kind of association with the wedding planner is still for the rich and famous? Sarah Balfour: No, I don’t think so. I think it definitely used to be but I think not now. I think that people work hard, they work long hours and don’t have time. It is a full time job to organize a wedding. It’s a little bit of moving half—bu to do it all by yourself. So to have some help is becoming more and more essential I think in day to day life. The busier we get with our own lives work paternal things, the more useful I think it’s become. George: So, tell me about planning weddings abroad. Sarah Balfour: I love working in Italy and we do a lot of work in Italy. In fact I have a young bride and groom who would like to get married in Sicily though they’re not familiar with Sicily. I’m flying of there next week to choose a venue for the client because they’re too busy here. They work long hours, they’re moving house and they don’t have time. So there’s a lot of trust that comes into play in my relationship with the bride and groom. So I’m going next week to choose a venue, to meet the florist, the photographer, the caterer and all the other various people that are involved in the wedding. George: So logistically, is it difficult organizing a wedding abroad? Sarah Balfour: It is difficult organizing a wedding abroad. I’ve got used to it now in this experience, you know, having a really fabulous portfolio of contacts and supplies but unfortunate enough to now having been doing for several years now. And because I have that tool, it’s difficult as it might be certainly without a planner I think it would be something very difficult for bride and grooms to do alone. George: Is it quite complicated for you to create that sort of ultimate relaxed atmosphere? Sarah Balfour: I think the secret to creating the relaxed atmosphere is to take away the stress and strains away from the bride and groom, give them a 100% confidence that they have nothing to worry about to and that they just need to take off their watch that day, leave all the worrying to me and just enjoy it. And I think one’s all the guests can see how relaxed and over the moon the bride and groom are, it takes the edge off.